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exchange for Gavin’s life.”
    There, it was said. Aileana lifted her chin higher, her even expression calculated to show that she knew full well her bride-value. A man like Duncan MacRae would need to search far and wide for a willing woman with bloodlines more noble than her own.
    The MacRae remained silent, his face immovable granite, his eyes deepening from gray to icy flint. The only sign that he’d heard came in the twitch of a muscle near his temple. For a moment, Aileana thought that he would ignore Robert’s offer and add to the insult by walking from the hall without another word. But then she watched in fascinated horror as his expression changed—to what, she wasn’t certain. Perhaps sharpened was the best way to describe it.
    With careful, measured steps he approached her and cradled her chin in his firm grip. His leather glove felt warm and smooth against her skin, making a tingle of raw sensation sweep through her. Her gaze fixed to his sensual lips as they edged upward. But instead of relief, his smile made her feel captured. Frozen in place.
    Wordlessly, his hand drifted from her cheek to her shoulder; he raised a tendril of her hair and rubbed it between his finger and thumb. Through the numbness, a dark thought began to edge its way into the recesses of her mind. It wriggled and twisted, forcing itself into her consciousness until it became too strong to ignore. Then it burst upon her with the turbulence of an impending storm.
    The bastard was inspecting her like a sow at market.
    Aileana gasped and her cheeks burned. But before she could react, his hands slid down her sides to her hips, histouch bold, testing her flesh with unmistakable meaning. It was a show put on for the others, she knew; he had already seen her unclothed in the glen, and that made it all the worse.
    With a guttural cry, Aileana shoved at him and stepped back. He didn’t move. His eyes glinted with laughter, a deeper smile quirking his arrogant mouth…and her temper snapped. She whipped her arm upward, intending to slap him hard enough to make him see stars, but he reached out and grabbed her hand, stopping her.
    “Not a very docile sacrifice, are you, lassie?” Duncan murmured for her ears alone, though his deliberate movements could be seen by all as he pressed her arm to her side again firmly.
    Robert looked ready to throttle him, clearly struggling to hold himself in control for Gavin’s sake as he paused before muttering again, “So what say you, MacRae? Will you be taking my sister to wife or not?”
    So great was Aileana’s fury that she almost didn’t hear Duncan’s response. But his answer gradually seeped through, making the blood in her veins congeal.
    “Your sister is attractive enough. My own eyes told me as much earlier today in the glen. And it’s true I need a woman to warm my bed.”
    With a nod of decision, he leaned forward and directed a glare at Robert. “Agreed, MacDonell. I’ll spare your brother’s life in exchange for taking possession of your sister. But I’ll not take her as wife.” He flicked his silver gaze to her. “I’ll take her as leman.”
    Robert’s stupefaction matched hers, it seemed, though his lasted but an instant. With a bellow of rage, he lunged at Duncan, only to be yanked to a stop by three MacRaes who’d been standing behind him. Aileana watched the struggle as if in a dream; she shifted hergaze and saw Duncan shrug, saw him nod for his men to drag Gavin from the castle, saw him move toward the huge, arched portal at the end of the great hall…
    Her palms felt clammy. The image flashed through her mind of what her life would be like as a social outcast, reviled and scorned, isolated by walls more impenetrable than those erected around her as the Ealach ’s keeper. Yet she knew she must speak before the MacRae vanished through the door, taking Gavin with him. Swallowing the dry ball in her throat, she took two steps forward.
    “Wait,” she whispered.
    The MacRae